Mark Carney has said he wants a woman to be a governor for the first time in the Bank’s 300-year history, and promised to “grow top female economists all the way through the ranks”.

He said he was surprised that none of the present members of the monetary policy committee, which sets interest rates, are female.

The economists on the committee are appointed by the government. Of the committee’s 33 members since the Bank was granted independence in 1997, only four have been women.

Mr Carney promised to create a pool of candidates who will eventually become good enough to be the first female governor.

He told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4 that the situation is “striking actually on a personal level, although it is the responsibility of the Government to select the candidates”. He added that his ultimate aim is to “add to the diversity of macro-economic thinking and add to qualified candidates for the monetary policy committee, including qualified candidates for a future governor”.

Only four of 33 senior economists to serve as rate-setters since the Bank was granted independence in 1997 have been women.

The committee has been male-dominated since housing specialist Kate Barker’s term came to an end more than three years ago.

In the US, the Federal Reserve vice chairman Janet Yellen is the leading candidate to take over the top job. Mr Carney has already made a senior female appointment since taking over in July, when he made Charlotte Hogg the Bank’s first chief operating officer.

She is the daughter of Douglas Hogg, a viscount and former Tory minister.

Mr Carney also said that individuals who made violent threats against campaigners who succeeded in putting Jane Austen on a banknote should be prosecuted “to the full extent of the law”.

Stella Creasy, a Labour MP, was sent a picture of a masked man brandishing a kitchen knife while Caroline Criado-Perez, a journalist, was subjected to online abuse and rape threats. Police have arrested three men in connection with the allegations.

Mr Carney, a Canadian and former investment banker, also said that banks detached from the real world are “socially useless” and must change their ways.